The background of this invention will address desks, bureaus, and peripheral computer and mobile device components.
Desks and Bureaus
The word “desk” originated from the Modern Latin word desca “table to write on,” which is a mid-14th century word. “Desca” is a modification of the Old Italian desco for “table,” from Latin discus for “dish” or “disc.” A desk may refer, in general, to a bureau, counter, davenport, escritoire, lectern, reading stand, rolltop desk, school desk, workspace, or writing desk. In France, the bureau desk got its name (and, incidentally, so did the French word for “office,” where the desk lived) from a traditional swath of dark red fabric that was draped across the top of a desk—in Latin, burrus, for red.
Described generally, a desk or bureau is a piece of furniture with a flat table-style work surface used in a school, office, home or the like for academic, professional or domestic activities such as reading, writing, or using equipment, such as a computer. Some desks have the form of a table, although there is usually one side of a desk that is suitable to sit at, unlike most kinds of tables. Most desks are sturdy so people can lean on them; and, in most cases, people sit at a desk either on a separate chair or a built-in chair (e.g., school desks). Some desks do not have the form of a table, such as an armoire desk-built within a large wardrobe-like cabinet, or a portable desk that is light enough to be placed on a person's lap.
Desk/Bureau Styles and Shapes
Desk-style furniture appears not to have been first used in classical antiquity or in other ancient centers of literate civilization in the Middle East or Far East. Medieval illustrations show the first pieces of desk or bureau furniture were designed and constructed for reading and writing. Since manuscript volumes were, at this time, very large and heavy, desks of the period usually had massive supporting structures.
As early as 1440, drawings also depicted scribes sitting at sloped desks working to make copies of manuscripts, books, and documents—before the press revolutionized things in the Renaissance. Desks after the Renaissance began to have relatively slimmer support structures, and more and more drawers were added as woodworking became more precise and cabinet-making became a distinct trade.
By Elizabethan and Jacobean times, the availability of printed material mandated a wider growth and more varied development of the desk. In Spain, Moorish-style writing cabinets called “varguenos” featured hinged tops on box-like stands, beautifully inlaid with silver, called “plateresque.” The William & Mary period (and, in tandem, Colonial America) ushered in the development of spiral-turned legs, inlay wood, trumpet and vase-and-cup turning, brass fittings, x-shaped stretchers, molded edges, and carved skirts. Some desks-on-frames had box tops that could be removed from their frames and placed on the lap, or set on a larger table. Other bureau variations include flip-back tops, with less of an incline and storage beneath, or flip-down tops, which have more of an incline, and use the top for a desktop.
Developed during the William & Mary period, the bureau desk supported a bigger desk area and greater storage space, combining a slant-top box with a lower chest of drawers. Pull-out slides built in next to the top drawer supported the top. The bureau-style desk led to the use of pigeonholes, slots and drawers for placing different paper, pens, and letters, and these desks would be ornamented with a straight-front, serpentine-front, oxbow, block-front, or bowed-front.
Around 1660, the French conceived a bureau for formal writing called a “Mazarin,” which featured a huge, flat top, a kneehole-style body with 3 drawers on either side, a bow front, and 8 legs—four per pedestal, often with curving, Baroque stretchers. Named after Louis XIV's principal minister, this was the first incarnation of the French-style “writing table,” which had regal, vertical proportions and splendid brass inlay made famous by André Boulle. Simpler versions of the bureau Mazarin were imitated from Holland to Britain with tops inland with gorgeous marquetry.
The Rococo-style bureau plat (“flat desk”) was developed with a table structure and a row of slender drawers, cabriole legs, and serpentine curves. These Rocco-style bureaus were status symbols for the aristocracy—beautifully outfitted pieces dedicated solely to the art of being educated.
Eventually, the Louis XVI style brought about the straight, tapered lines of Neoclassicism, and the bureau plat was modified to have the famous cylinder top with smaller versions for ladies of the house. The bureau plat remains a popular form of desk today, adjusting well to modern minimalism and chic offices.
The kneehole desk developed during fanciful, Rococo Chippendale period, possessed many of the Chippendale's signature details: block, flat, or serpentine fronts; oversized brass mounts; large ball-and-claw feet; and molded edges. These desks were easier to sit closer to the desk without having to turn to the side. The backs of the kneehole openings were either open, or closed—sometimes with a small cabinet built into the back. This Chippendale form of desk was incredibly popular in Victorian times, evolving into two other popular forms: the pedestal desks and the roll-top desk. A hallmark of this desk is its leather-covered top, which could be replaced and prevented scratches to the wood surface.
Some of the most beautiful writing desks came out of the Regency and Federal periods, with the lightness of Neoclassical forms married with rich veneers and elegant brass mounts. An incredibly decorative cylinder-top desk from France was subsequently designed during the Neoclassical period. A variation on both the knee-hole desk and the tambour secretary, the French cylinder desk features a solid barrel roll, or a tambour-style shuttered piece, that rolls horizontally into the back of the desk. A Sheraton-style cherry wood desk with a half-round shaped back and smooth, flat veneered front was also developed after the Chippendale era of desks. Another French desk made with women in mind was the bonheur-du-j our, a petite desk with a high row of little drawers across the back.
Into the 18th century, written material was more widely published and circulated, and desks grew to accommodate this increase in available published materials. The Latin word for “writer,” secretarius gives us the title “secretary,” which in turn is used to refer to this beautiful, formal piece of writing furniture. An American Federal-style secretary with a glazed cabinet top and a flip-forward writing surface was designed to rest on two pull-outs. The Federal-style tambour secretary was another variation, also called a “low secretary,” noted for its sliding tambour shutters that conceal the upper level of drawers and pigeonholes. These secretaries were carefully crafted by applying thin slats of wood vertically to fabric—flexible, yet delicate.
In the Victorian period, secretaries were designed with upper elaborate china cabinets. More plain secretaries were also produced based on the philosophically driven Arts & Crafts style and popular Mission style. These Victorian era secretaries were heavy oak, with crude joinery, Medieval style hardware, and an overall “austere” feel.
The Resolute desk in the Oval Office has been used by many American presidents, including John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Queen Victoria commissioned the desk from William Evenden, Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham, England, and presented to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880. It is made from the timbers of the HMS Resolute, an abandoned British ship discovered by an American vessel and returned to Queen Victoria as a token of friendship and goodwill.
The famous Schoolmaster's desk was developed from the flip-back form in America during 1800s. Anna Breadin designed and patented a one-piece school desk in the late 1880s, which was built with a table section attached in front of a wooden seat and back rest. Before this development, most students in America sat either on chairs or long benches at long tables.
Refinements to these desk forms were made throughout the 19th century, as steam-driven machinery made cheap wood-pulp paper possible towards the end of the first phase of the Industrial Revolution. While limited quantities of finely-crafted desks have been continued to be constructed by master cabinetmakers for the homes and offices of the rich, the vast majority of desks after the Industrial Revolution were assembled rapidly by labor from components turned out in batches by machine tools. There is a long-felt, but unfulfilled need, for better and more satisfactory style and shape of desks and bureaus in this modern era.
Desk/Bureau Production Methods
Desks and bureaus are usually made of wood or metal, although materials such as tempered glass are sometimes used to fabricate a desk. Executive or management desks have become mass-produced articles built with plywood or fiberboard covered with wood finish. While woodworking enthusiasts can build their own versions, almost all modern desks are mass-produced in steel or wood for sale on the consumer market.
Modern mass-produced student desks are often made with laminate table tops and molded plastic seats in a combined single unit. Steel desks were introduced to take heavier loads of paper and withstand the pounding meted out on the typewriters. There is an unfulfilled need for better and more economical methods of fabrication of desks and bureaus in this modern era.
Advent of Personal Computers in Workplace
Until the 1980s, desks remained a place for paperwork, and the extensive use of paper and correspondence prior to the 1980s drove the need for more complex desks and more specialized desks, such as the rolltop desk, which was a mass-produced, slatted variant of the classical cylinder desk. “Business machines,” such as personal computers began to be placed on top of desks in the 1980s and thereafter.
While the concept of a “paperless office” was considered as the next “future” development in the office work environment, the ease of printing personal documents and the discomfort involved with reading text on computer monitors continued to lead to a great deal of document printing. The need for paperwork space competed with the increased desk space taken up by larger computer monitors, CPUs, printers, scanners, and other peripherals. Replacement of bulky CRT monitors with flat panel LCDs freed up room on desktops, but the size of displays often increased to accommodate multiple on-screen windows, to display more and more information simultaneously. There is a long-felt, but unfulfilled need, for better space and economical uses of desk and bureau space and uses in this modern time.
Use of non-assigned or temporary office space in the modern office has changed how office furniture is used. For instance, visiting workers, such as guests, home office workers or other workers, may use temporary-assigned office space at a firm or other place of employment. Moreover, part-time workers, home workers, or associates may time-share the same office space at a place of employment by coming into the office on different work days or different times during the workday. These workers may not have dedicated office space or dedicated office furniture. There is an unfulfilled need to accommodate locked and unlocked storage, computer placement, power/data coupling and recharging, and clothes hanging for transitory and visiting office occupants.
With the introduction of desktop personal computer units into the office environment, desks began to be equipped with plug outlets for power and data plug-ins. Because a wide range of devices, from mobile telephones to wireless mice, have different connectors, power signaling, and the uses for such devices are not standardized. Moreover, connectors for power and data outlets are often located in an inconvenient manner without allowing users to easily access the ports with ease.
Various file folder type stands have been developed to place multiple thin mobile devices one on top of the other. Most multi-device charging and docking stations store a laptop, tablet and up to three other mobile devices like smartphones, cell phones or portable gaming devices, but these prior art systems tend to place the devices one on top of the other. One cannot see the screens of these devices simultaneously when placed in these types of stands, which is inconvenient. Also, desk space has become over utilized with desktop computers and desktop computer equipments, which leads to a need to provide for additional surfaces for computer and computer equipment placement outside the traditional desk unit. There is a long-felt, but unfulfilled need, to store mobile devices outside a traditional desktop, but on an auxiliary desk or bureau while simultaneously allowing the display of mobile devices or pad computers along with the need for easy access to power and data outlets so multiple mobile devices be viewed and charged simultaneously with each other.